I'm not sure that even the Mostali are familiar with this concept in Glorantha. The Malkioni might be the only ones. Oh, and maybe the Mystics -- but my (subjective) belief is that the Kralori philosophs believe that all the other cultures of Glorantha possess an operational subjective world-view, but that they, themselves, have the only correct and truly objective world-view, which they can prove, of course.
I think that the most sophisticated Malkioni scholars reason that all the nations of Glorantha have their own subjective world-view, and that the True Man of Science strives to see past subjectivity, and on to the "real truth". I don't think that such Malkioni believe that even they have the "truth", only that they have much more of it than anyone else. Certainly such a scholar would have nothing but contempt for the world-views professed by peasants, warriors, and village priests of even his own sect of Malkionism.
Peter Metcalfe foolishly disagrees with something I said:
>You are seriously sugesting that monkhood is made of a majority of
>nohopers? ... I would put the monks at the TOP of the scale.
Not at all -- I'm just saying that you don't need high-powered magical abilities to "achieve" monkhood, which you _do_ need in order to be a functioning wizard. The Malkioni, not being totally devoid of common sense, no doubt winnow out those candidates who are talented, and keep them out of monkhood. This doesn't mean that monks are "inferior" socially, ethically, or morally. Just magically. I also regard the western monks and nuns as serving the highly laudatory function of being a useful way to tuck away unwanted sisters or rivals. I'm sure that disappointed priests and magicians often shave their heads (as with Japanese monks) and retire to a life of meditation and solitude.
In wilder regions of Ralios, there may be rather desperate groups of monks who engage in rapine and plunder, much as occurred in areas of France as late as the 17th century. And lets not forget the Yamabushi. While Malkioni monks may not be able to wield sword and shield, they can certainly hire ruffians and support them with their magic.
>There is IMO no female equivalent of a Monastic retreat.
Why not? Female hermits were not unknown in Malorian England, for instance.
>I don't believe the Malign Earth actually entered Dara Happa from
>the Orlanthi. Dara Happa and Orlanthi mainly interacted with each
>other by trying to put the Boot in.
This precludes their learning stuff from one another? Do not forget that they have spent centuries as allies at various times. Plus let us not forget the good ol' hill barbarians of Talastar, Brolia, and Aggar -- these guys were never a serious threat to the Dara Happans, and some interaction could take place there, too.
Bad Alex:
re: anti-incest
>While animals don't, admittedly, have taboos, some social ways do
>have behavioral anti-incest mechanisms, such as booting adolescent
>males out
Give me a break. If anti-incest was the "purpose" behind these behaviors, then adolescent females would be booted out, too, which is so rare as to be nigh-unknown among such animals.
Bad Sandy:
>The Pamalt cult has five categories of membership: Initiate, Shaman,
>Acolyte, and Chieftain.
And lay member.
Alex F. writes a whole bunch of stuff about Malkioni celibacy, sub-castes, and afterlife (Monday, Nov 21)
Because I'm not permitted to post all his stuff and then say "I agree". I'll just say, "I agree".
> I was suggesting the God Learners _recognised_ the distinction
>[between Malign and Benign], and perhaps applied it more widely,
>rather than having made it themselves.
Ah. Sorry. Now I concur.
>Now if, for some reason, the Six Earths cult only became
>explicitly dualised in the third age
I think the Six Earth's cult was restricted to the elves, and to the Inner Secrets of the Earth cults, and that hardly anyone knew about it before the Second Age, when the GLs spread it abroad. The Earth cults are one of the best groups to experiment with after all - -- the deities are mostly used to being dominated, and so are comparatively docile, plus they have a wide variety of useful powers.
Paul Snow:
> If there is a minimal infant mortality rate then the population
>growth rate in Glorantha should be unusually high compared to the
>historical cultures with which we draw parallels unless there is a
>control of the birth rate.
Unless there is a high non-infant mortality rate, which Glorantha, IMO, exemplifies. Diseases that kill every woman between the ages of 15-25, angry kings who murder every third person in the whole city, religious cults that derive magic power from virginity (such as the Rokari or Earth Shakers), and an occasional Night of Horrors/Dragonkill War/Gift Carrier of the Sending Gods all contribute to keeping Gloranthan populations at whatever level you deem fit without ever having to kill a single infant.
Nonetheless, I heartily agree that an Infertility Spirit is clearly one of the Gloranthan critters, to be immediately added to my spirit bestiary.
I claim distaste for randomly killing the children of PCs.
>Wouldn't another view be to say that by facing these forms of
>tragedy in the game we can better cope with them in life?
You play RPGs to learn how to cope with real-life troubles? <guffaw> What gamemaster worth his salt would pass up the opportunity to use the child of a PC to torment the PC much more hideously than a mere random D100 roll death would ever do.
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